Off-duty Chicago cop fatally shoots burglar

The suspect reached for his waistband in a dark gangway after refusing to show the officer his hands

By Peter Nickeas
Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Chicago police shot and killed a man in the Old Town Triangle neighborhood before midnight Saturday night, according to police and a union spokesman.

The off-duty officer lives in the area and saw a man on the porch of a vacant apartment about 11:30 p.m., Fraternal Order of Police Spokesman Patrick Camden said.

He called out to the man to see what he was doing and the man replied "you don't want no part of me," Camden said.

The man had a bag or sack over his shoulder and his hand on his waistband, Camden said, but repeatedly ignored the officer's commands to come down after he identified himself as an officer.

"So he comes downstairs and the officer says, 'Let me see your hands.' The guy keeps telling him, 'You don't want no part of me,'" Camden said. "And a neighbor is standing there and tells him, 'He's a police officer, he's a police officer, show him your hands.'"

The man turned down a gangway and started to walk away but the officer told him there was no way out of that gangway, Camden said.

The man, in a dark gangway, grabbed his waistband and threatened to kill the officer while continuing to ignore the officer's demands to show his hands, Camden said.

The officer opened fire after the man grabbed his waistband, striking the man, Camden said. He died at the scene, and the officer was not injured. Camden described the incident as a burglary.

The Chicago Police Department only acknowledged the incident but didn't have any other details as of about 1:40 a.m.